If you have been at loggerheads with your teen’s mood and coinciding words like: “Just stop nagging Me!” “You don’t understand”! Or “Mom! We’re going to be late! We need to go!” You’ve no doubt witnessed your teen unravel under the stress of “time management and anxiety” in action.
Our world these days is over-stimulating, and finalizing assignments involves coordination between the rational processes and emotional needs that play on our minds. For the teenager’s brain, time management is even more difficult. Executive functioning which trains the brain to plan, organize, and execute tasks in a timely manner is neurological activity, intertwined and complicated with an emotional response — Hi there, anxiety!
When it comes to juggling everything, it’s rough. If you have conflicts with your teen concerning time – before leaping in to rescue them from overwhelming feelings, psychological studies recommend, validating their underlying anxieties.
More often than not, the reasons for time challenges are associated with tackling emotions. Research shows that identifying feelings and implementing easily accessible time management strategies helps teens’ deal with worries.
Addressing Time Management with iStratus
We all exhibit an inner procrastinator at times. We can easily fall into mastering the art of dreading something or avoiding tasks until it becomes too much to bear. If your teen evades things, they probably want to avoid failure.
While they’re fully aware of their avoidance, they may not realize its intrinsic protection from painful feelings. The mere thought of study the night before an exam, or not being seated before the bell rings brings anxiety.
Using iStratus as an Academic Planner each day can help your teen visualize what’s ahead so they can plan and manage what they’re required to do; and when they will have the time to do it. In other words, they see the whole picture; your teen has their day mapped out.
You can easily create a list of timeslots in iStratus with the Checklist feature, so that daily scheduling is clear for “ticking off.” For example:
🗹 Timetable: Wednesday, 5/5/21
- Morning Homeroom @ 8:40 – 9:00 am
🗹 English @ 9:05 – 9:55 am
- Math @ 10:05 – 10:50 am
🗹 Lunch @ 11:00 – 11:45 am
🗹 Social Studies (S.S.) @ 12:05 – 12:50 pm
🗹 Study Period @ 1:00 -1:45 pm
🗹 Recess @ 1:50 – 2:05 pm
🗹 Visual Arts @ 2:10- 2:50 pm
- Afternoon Homeroom @ 2:55 – 3:20 pm
- Finish Homework 4 S.S. & Math @ 4:15 – 5:15 pm
- Prepare gear for Tennis Practice tomorrow afternoon
Shifting Time Management Anxiety
Does your teen underestimate how long tasks will take and then feel surprised by the overwhelm they experience?
Do you hear statements like: “It wasn’t meant to take this long!”
Your teen can adapt Stratus to:
- Avoid spending too much time working on projects until they’re “perfect”. If they have a hard time knowing when a task is complete, checking something off within a deadline helps.
- Finish things with a clear goal in mind, so they avoid feeling powerless, victimized by their to-do lists.
- Calendar multiple events with reminders.
- Highlight after-school and weekend commitments. The ‘POST IT’ Note feature comes in handy for this.
Visual appeal is important for motivation and engagement too. Your teen can jazz up their Checklists with custom color themes and emojis.
All options are easily duplicated and edited. iStratus is a support tool that helps combat feeling overwhelmed. Everyone is different, keep it simple and use what works.
Teens rely heavily on the approval of others to feel good about themselves. They often lack trust in their ability to complete tasks, when there’s a lot on their plate.
It’s a struggle with their internal gauge that indicates to them what is manageable and what’s too much. “So long as you’ve tried your best that’s Good Enough” is not part of their vocabulary. Realistically, the words: “more,” “better,” and “improve” are.
Thus, for a plan to truly be effective, teens require a system, which displays their ENTIRE week at a glance. Akin to adults, it also helps teens to set goals: “What are their main ones? Nonjudgmentally naming them, will help navigate and apply the strategies that iStratus hopes to encourage.
“Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement, and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.”
~ Brian Adams
Awareness and persistence are everything. Driven by fear, teens will attempt to avert criticism by poking holes in their own assignments before anyone else does. Being over-prepared with iStratus is a way for them to feel in control with increased confidence for managing their anxiety.
Together, we can time things right.